2005 Season begins.....

[TriCitySteve]

Well, it's time for me to post another message to myself.... as no one but me seems to enjoy poking around out here on the Tri-City CC forum.... At least since a couple of years ago!

At any rate, Tri-City is poised to begin our 2005 season April 16th, as we host a fledgling club from Colgate University in Hamilton NY. They have been trying for the last couple of years to get a club going, and it looks like they finally have a shot.

Many universities in the U.S. have cricket clubs, usually populated by overseas students from either India or Pakistan, but one thing Colgate is doing right is reaching out to others who might be curious; something I've been advocating for years. The only way cricket will become a mainstream sport is if all cricketers in the U.S. work to reach out and encourage their local communities to develop youth cricket programs open to EVERYONE (not just the relatives of current expat cricketers....).

Enough of my rantings.... If anyone wants to check out Tri-City's 2005 schedule, point your browser to http://tricitycricket.com . We are still filling out our August/Sept schedule, but as of right now, we are just about booked up right through July. CAN'T WAIT FOR IT ALL TO START!!!

Advance Tri-City!!!!

 

[superkingdave]

Good luck with the season Steve

 

[TriCitySteve]

SuperKingDave,
Thanks for the good wishes. The weather's getting warmer, and this weekend looks like our first chance to get out and prepare the wicket and play.
I had a friend from Australia visit last fall.... He couldn't believe what we play on... called it a goat path, I believe, but I assured him that it was one of the bes, truest playing wickets we've encountered in our many travels around the northeastern U.S.
Still, I was envious when he showed me pictures of their village ground back in Pinjarra, WA. A nice little pavilion, practice nets, restrooms, picnic tables. It was really nice.
For our part, we have to be satisfied with a set of broken down aluminum bleachers under a tree, and a Port-a-potty shoved into the woods near the ground. Not pretty, but I guess it works.........
At least we have a place to play, and hopefully, we can grow this thing even more this year. I hope to get a little Tuesday night "kid's cricket" program going this year. We'll see how it turns out, and hopefully I'll have a new topic to write about here on the Cricket Web forum.

Thanks again fro the reply. Glad to know someone else is actually checking in from time to time.

Steve

 

[Kweek]

hey minnow soulpartner :P
got to agree you can play cricket thats what its all about right
i wish you best wishes for your 2005 season myself cant wait for my own season either! Friday first training 8th of may 1st match
good to see your trying to get locals to play its very important indeed.

 

[Robertinho]

Yeah man, cricket is a great game once you get to know it, and it's awesome that people are playing it even where the media is dominated by crap like ice hockey

 

[TriCitySteve]

Kwek,
Thanks for the good wishes. It sounds like the season in the Netherlands runs about the same as it does here in the northeastern U.S.
By the way, did you know that this part of America was originally settled by Netherlanders?? I'm actually involved in the New Netherland's Museum here in upstate NY (I'm in Schenectady, right near Albany NY the state capital....). We have built a replica of the jaght Half Moon (Halve Maen...) that Henry Hudson sailed here in 1609, and we use it to teach people about the history of the original Dutch settlers here. I just got finished filming a documentary that is now airing on the History Channel here in the U.S. The movie is called "Conquest of America", and the third segment of the four part series is all about Henry Hudson and the Dutch exploration of the New York area. Here's the link.. http://www.historychannel.com/conquest/ if you're interested....
In addition to using the ship in movies, we sail with middle school students down the Hudson River, teaching about the history of the Dutch expedition and the ecology of the river. We also give tours of the ship to the public and school groups from the area. It's a lot of fun, and I've gotten to meet a lot of people from the Netherlands who are involved with the ship and the museum. I've even gotten to travel to the Netherlands a couple of times.....
Well, I'm getting way off topic here, so I'll cut this short. Good luck to you in your cricket season.......

Steve

 

[TriCitySteve]

Robertinho,
Actually, we didn't even have ice hockey on TV this year... They went on strike, so the whole NHL season was lost! But I agree...we need more cricket on the air....


Steve

 

[superkingdave]

How's the season going Steve?

 

[Kweek]

Kwek,
Thanks for the good wishes. It sounds like the season in the Netherlands runs about the same as it does here in the northeastern U.S.
By the way, did you know that this part of America was originally settled by Netherlanders?? I'm actually involved in the New Netherland's Museum here in upstate NY (I'm in Schenectady, right near Albany NY the state capital....). We have built a replica of the jaght Half Moon (Halve Maen...) that Henry Hudson sailed here in 1609, and we use it to teach people about the history of the original Dutch settlers here. I just got finished filming a documentary that is now airing on the History Channel here in the U.S. The movie is called "Conquest of America", and the third segment of the four part series is all about Henry Hudson and the Dutch exploration of the New York area. Here's the link.. http://www.historychannel.com/conquest/ if you're interested....
In addition to using the ship in movies, we sail with middle school students down the Hudson River, teaching about the history of the Dutch expedition and the ecology of the river. We also give tours of the ship to the public and school groups from the area. It's a lot of fun, and I've gotten to meet a lot of people from the Netherlands who are involved with the ship and the museum. I've even gotten to travel to the Netherlands a couple of times.....
Well, I'm getting way off topic here, so I'll cut this short. Good luck to you in your cricket season.......

Steve

hey steve just saw this one :-)
im very much interested in history therefor i all knew this. but great to hear about it!
do you have any dutch links in your family tree. or just very much interested?
my cricket season is going oke. could be better!
id like to talk more to you. got msn ?

 

[chooka_nick]

Mate, can I just say, good luck.
But can you tell us a bit about yourself as a player? What do you bowl, where do you bat, do you keep, ect?
PS after having a pretty good season myself, I can safely say 'move your feet'!

 

[TriCitySteve]

SuperKingDave,
So far, our season has been....rain....and more rain.....and, oh, by the way...rain. We've only managed to get one match in (a 65 run victory), and we had an away match yesterday that I was unable to attend, so I haven't heard how we did in that one. You can read about our exploits at our website http://tricitycricket.com if you're interested. I do most if not all of the game write-ups, as I tend to be the most meticulous about scorekeeping and data collection (10 years in corporate finance will do that to a guy...)

Kwek,
Great to hear that you are into all that history stuff. It never interested me much until I got involved with the Halfmoon. We had a professional sailor from the Netherlands on board with us for this trip, so my list of Nederlander friends is growing. I just got back on Friday and the trip itself was a lot of fun and work. You can read about the whole thing at the New Netherlands Museum website at http://www.halfmoon.mus.ny.us/livinghistory.htm . You can click on our daily logs, crew info and everything to learn about what we do. It's a tremendous way to teach kids about history in an interesting way, and how to sail a 17th century, square rigged sailing vessel. Quite an experience!
Unfortunately, I don't have MSN, but you can certainly email if you want more info at sweisse@nycap.rr.com. Tot ziens! (did I spell that right??)

Chooka_nick,
Thanks for the wish of good luck...I certainly need it! There's not much to tell about me personally as a cricketer. I'm still learning, and have only been playing for 5 years (and one of those years I missed almost the entire season while I travelled overseas on business...). I tend to be a tailender from a batting standpoint, and since we play almost exclusively 30-35 limited over matches it is a rare occasion that I get to face more than a handfull of deliveries even if I do get in to bat. Of course, it doesn't help that we have about 9 or 10 top quality upper order batsmen ahead of me.
I have had more success on the bowling end, and have managed to utterly confuse many a batsman with my long, quick run-up and almost complete lack of pace! Well, that's not entirely true. I tend to be a seam bowler, and I vary my pace (what little there is!) in such a way as to keep most batsmen a little unsure of what shot to play, which is remarkably effective. On a slow wicket, I can be absolutely deadly, especially to the big guys who like to slog away at the ball. Last year, I managed a 4/19 performance, one clean bowled...(he swung ten minutes before the ball reached him), one caught and bowled (or is that, bowled and caught>)?), and two caught in the outfield. It was a lot of fun to watch, and my teammates were in stitches laughing at the frustration of our opponents.
I am pretty quick as a fielder, and enjoy chasing down balls in the outfield and have made a few heartstopping catches over the last five years, including a huge one last year. I was standing on the boundary, and our captain had just fired one down the wicket that the bastman lashed with all his might high into the air. It seemed like it was up there for ten minutes, and at the last second, it started to tail away sharply to my left. I kept my eye on it, and managed to snatch it from the air as I dove sideways. That was a great feeling, especially because it always seems like the high ones are the hardes to catch. You stand there waiting, with all time in the world to think about it, and sometimes, it's too much. I prefer the line drives that don't give you any time to think... just react.
At any rate, that's all the news from here. While I was typing this, I found out we lost the match yesterday by two wickets. We made 139 all out, which is pretty low for us, but we were on an unfamiliar ground and didn't have our complete batting lineup. It sounds like the club we played, Mad Dogs CC in Hartford, Connecticut, are a great bunch of guys, and we're looking forward to hosting them here at our ground later this season. That's what friendly cricket is all about!
Ooorroo, mate..